1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to shoring boxes and related methods for use in shoring open excavations; and more particularly to an improved shoring box adapted for variable configuration for shoring around utility lines, pipes, duct banks and the like.
2. Related Art
There are many systems available for shoring the walls of open excavations. Generally, these systems, or “shoring systems”, are made up of large panels for supporting the walls of a trench or hole and a number of supports for holding the panels against their respective walls. With the walls properly supported by shoring, the trench or hole may be accessed by workers in a safe manner.
Of the many systems, there are various designs currently available for shoring. Because examples of such shoring systems may be found with a simple internet search, and because those having skill in the art are already familiar with shoring systems there will be minimal discussion herein. Instead, we describe a longstanding problem in the art that remains unresolved and continues to threaten injury to workers in excavations, refining, mining, and similar operations.
In particular, when digging a trench or hole, it is often the case that unexpected utility lines, pipes, and/or duct banks appear during an excavation. This usually occurs because of the number of entities involved in grounding utility lines, thus the land may be subject to failed communication or documentation, errors in blueprints, etc. When confronting the unexpected, traditional shoring systems may not be suitable for shoring near these problematic areas.
For example, an unexpected pipe crossing perpendicular to a known line results in a shoring panel being vertically limited. Thus, the trench wall beneath the unexpected pipe is not properly shored. Depending on the depth of the trench, this could lead to harmful, and potentially fatal, conditions. There has yet to be developed a shoring system for meeting these and other commonly occurring situations.
In another example, older cities, especially large cities and other urban areas, often have a large number of utility lines, cables, pipes, and other obstructions that are encountered when trenching in these areas. This spider-web like mess of lines can often be problematic for shoring since current systems are not capable of being installed in these areas. Again, there has yet to be provided a configurable shoring system suitable for shoring walls with large numbers of crossing utilities.
Other problems in the art will become apparent in the following descriptions of the inventive features and embodiments.